


A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Spider-Verse

by ArmaadaJ



Category: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Genre: Eventual Romance, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Post-Movie
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-18
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2019-10-12 08:57:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17464442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArmaadaJ/pseuds/ArmaadaJ
Summary: The Multiverse is in danger again, and when Gwen Stacy and Miguel O'Hara enlist Miles' help, he jumps at the opportunity to save the world again, without hesitation. However, Miles soon finds that he'll have to confront something far more personal than the possibility of the multiverse collapsing - His and Gwen's growing feelings for each other.------------Will eventually include alternate versions of Spider-man that weren't featured in ITSV, as well as the dimensions that they're from.





	1. Let's Go Over This, One Last Time...

Miles Morales liked to think that he was getting the hang of this whole superhero thing. It had been almost a week since the last time he accidentally stuck himself to something, and he almost never swung face-first into buildings while on patrol. Sure, he hadn’t really had any major crimes to deal with outside of the occasional bank robbery, and sure the cops didn’t really trust him yet, and sure most of the city had already figured out that he was a kid - Miles broke himself out of that train of thought by shooting a web out and sharply changing direction with a single pull of his arms. 

_ ‘Man, I’ve got to stop getting myself down like that,’ _ Miles thought frustratedly.Web-swinging through the city could be the most relaxing thing in the world, but it also made Miles feel incredibly alone. Because as much as he enjoyed being the “one-and-only” Spider-man of his city, he often felt himself missing those few days when he had been one of six Spider-people who had fought to protect NYC. Miles picked out an apartment building’s rooftop and perched himself on the corner of it, almost perfectly sticking the landing. As he rolled his mask up to put his earbuds in, Miles silently wished Peter and Gwen could see him now. 

_‘Peter would hopefully be impressed with how much I’ve improved over the last few months, and Gwen…’_ Miles’ stomach began burning and his heart-rate skyrocketed. He stubbornly turned up the volume on his music, as if he could drown out his thoughts with sound. He was reluctant to admit just how often Gwen had entered his thoughts since the collider incident had been resolved. _‘But that’s totally normal though,’_ Miles thought stubbornly, _‘It’s totally normal to constantly think about how your friends are doing, and how cool they are, and how much you like their hair-’_ Miles silently cursed his thoughts for betraying him. As much as he denied it, Miles knew deep down that it wasn’t just because he admired her as a fellow superhero, or even just as a friend. As Miles stewed on his emotions for a bit, letting the rap music in his ears calm him down, a harsh buzzing noise filled his brain, and his vision turned blue and red, highlighting a large section of downtown. This was almost immediately accompanied by police sirens heading in that exact direction. 

_ ‘Finally!’ _ Miles thought excitedly. He scrambled to his feet, tucking his phone away and pulling his mask down. He took a deep breath, turned the volume to the max, and turned so that his back was facing the edge of the building.  _ ‘Time for Spider-man to go to work.’ _ Miles backflipped off of the building and swung out into the city.

Upon arriving at the crime scene, a few things immediately stuck out to Miles. First - none of the cops on-site had been injured, thankfully. Second, the same could not be said for their squad cars. Or, what was left of their squad cars, anyway. And finally, the villain they were fighting seemed to be… claymation?

“What the hell -” Miles barely had time to react before a piece of a cop car was launched straight at him. Letting his reflexes take over, he fell back, and while upside down in midair he quickly webbed up the debris before it could cause any more damage. Landing on his feet, Miles took off towards the villain, who seemed to be a hulking man dressed as a Rhino. His out-of-place appearance was causing Miles more anxiety than the actual fight going on. 

_ ‘There’s no way this guy is actually from another dimension right?!’ _ Before Miles even had a chance to be hopeful, Rhino glitched painfully, just like Peter and the others had months ago.  _ ‘Oh my god he’s from another dimension.’ _ Now, Miles was panicking. Thinking fast, he leapt at Rhino, shot two webs at a manhole cover, and twisted himself in midair to launch it directly at Rhino’s face. 

“Hey Gumby, I’m gonna need to see your passport!” Miles quipped as the cover clanged into Rhino’s forehead. Unfortunately, both the manhole cover and the quip only seemed to irritate Rhino further. Rhino roared at the top of his lungs, and charged towards Miles at full speed. Without even thinking about it, Miles jumped to the side and clung to the wall of a building. He immediately began shooting webs and Rhino’s feet to try and slow him down. “See, this is why New Yorkers hate tourists!” Miles quipped, as for a second it seemed like Rhino was slowing down. Unfortunately, he was just changing direction. As Rhino charged towards the cops, Miles frantically leapt towards them, shooting webs entirely on reflex. He managed to web most of them out of the way, and he grabbed two of them himself, but that still left two more cops in Rhino’s way. Before Miles could even process the situation, he was standing in between the cops and Rhino, as if he could stop the charge by himself. Just as it looked like Rhino was going to crush him and the cops, several strands of webbing caught Rhino in the face, and sharply twisted him into some nearby parked cars. Miles blinked in confusion. Just as he was about to wonder what had just happened, his question was answered by his spider-sense loudly going off in his head. Right on cue, two masked figures landed right in front of him. Miles immediately recognized the figure in white.

“Gwen?! What are y-” Miles’s exclamation was cut short by Gwen closing the distance between them and pulling him into one the the tightest hugs he’d ever been a part of. Before Miles could even fully process the fact that Gwen was back in his dimension, let alone hugging him, she broke away from him and swung to the top of a nearby building. The other figure, who Miles now saw was wearing a blue costume with red decals, swung after her. Without even stopping to think, Miles took off after them. The three swung for several blocks before eventually stopping on top of a tall, upscale hotel. Gwen and Miles pulled off their masks and grinned at each other. 

“Hey Miles,” Gwen said casually, “you’re not quite as bad at web-slinging as you were the last time I saw you.” Miles’ brain had basically stopped working at this point.

_ ‘Why haven’t I said anything yet? I should say something right? What do I say? Oh! Her hair’s growing back, say something about that!’ _

“Your hair’s growing back,” Miles said awkwardly, just unable to hide the disappointment in his voice. Gwen laughed softly, and ran her hand through her still lopsided hair-do, which had filled in completely on the right side and just barely reached over her ear.

“You like it?” Gwen asked, flashing Miles a lopsided grin that only served to further melt his brain. “This wasn’t my first choice for a hair-do, but a ‘friend of mine’ picked it out for me.” She pointedly raised an eyebrow at Miles, who had to look away to avoid either laughing or blushing. 

“Still sorry about that,” Miles weakly managed, “And if it makes you feel any better, I’ll try to keep my hands far away from your sick haircut. Wouldn’t want a repeat of last time.” Both teens finally burst out laughing.

“Not too far I hope,” Gwen retorted. Her eyes immediately widened and a blush spread across her cheeks as she realized what she said. Miles blinked.  _ ‘Did she just say that? She said that. Did she mean that like she said that?’ _ This train of thought was derailed by someone behind Miles loudly clearing their throat. Miles spun around to see the other masked figure from earlier, and was finally able to get a good look at his costume. 

“You’re… another Spider-man, aren’t you? Like, from a parallel universe.” Miles realized out loud. The other Spider-man nodded, and removed his mask to reveal a young looking man with medium length brown hair. 

“The name’s Miguel O’Hara. I’m the Spider-man of Earth-928.” He put his hand out, and Miles shook it confusedly. 

“Earth-928? There are that many earths? Wait, does my earth have a number? Who chooses the numbers? Wait, how are either of you even here?! You could totally glitch out like Rhino did! Wait, how did-” Miles’ rambling was cut off by Gwen socking him in the arm. She casually ignored Miles yelp of pain as Miguel chuckled at their display.

“Easy, Miles. First off, there are a lot of Earths out there. A lot. Yours is Earth-1610, and Gwen’s is Earth-65. And as for why we aren’t glitching,” Miguel held up his hand, showing off a wristwatch-like device. “These gizmos allow for autonomous inter-dimensional travel. I designed them myself… with some help, of course.” Stunned, Miles turned to Gwen, who grinned and held up her own gizmo. “Gwen was one of the first Spider-people I met after testing these out.”

“I’ve been helping Miguel do some multiverse maintenance for the last few months.” Gwen said proudly. “Your unwanted guest back there is only the most recent example of people getting spit out into other dimensions and causing chaos.” Miles nodded slowly, as the gravity of what Gwen and Miguel told him set in. 

“Wow uh… that’s not good,” Miles managed weakly, “So… what do we do?” Miguel raised an eyebrow.

“We?” Miguel asked, “I haven’t even asked you to join us yet.” Miles shrugged.

“Hey, being a friendly neighborhood Spider-man is cool and all, but I kinda miss saving the Multiverse.” He and Gwen exchanged smiles, no doubt recalling their last team-up. Miguel clapped his hands together affirmatively.

“Great! Glad to have you onboard! Now, uh… I should probably go take that Rhino back to his proper dimension.” Miguel put his mask back on and turned his attention towards the direction of the crime scene. “In the meantime, is there a safe place for us to spend the night in this dimension? It’s been a long day.” Gwen nodded.

“Yeah, I’m gonna go see if May Parker has an extra bed,” Gwen said nonchalantly. “She’s the one I told you about before.” Miguel nodded back.

“I’ll meet you there, then.” Miguel gave Miles a small salute before running to the edge of the building. “Nice meeting you Miles, see ya around!” And with that, he swung off towards Rhino’s location. Miles watched him swing away for a few seconds before Gwen snapped her fingers to get his attention. 

“Hey,” Gwen said, her mask already back on. “Race you to Aunt May’s?” Miles grinned and pulled his own mask down.

“Oh, it’s on!” The two raced off the rooftop and swung out into the city. As they dodged and weaved through the New York skyscrapers, the feeling of loneliness that had followed Miles around for the last few months totally dissipated.


	2. Come Into My Parlor...

“Eat up, kids!” Aunt May said warmly as she set a platter of sandwiches on the kitchen table. Miles quickly thanked her and immediately reached for one, but Gwen smacked his hand away.

“Ow, what the hell, dude?” Miles whined as Gwen snatched up the exact sandwich he had reached for. Gwen shrugged innocently as she took a couple bites.

“I’m older, so I get to eat first,” Gwen taunted, “Them’s the rules, kid.” Miles rolled his eyes as he took a bite from his own sandwich.

“Not anymore!” He said defiantly. “I turned fourteen last month, so we’re the same age.” Gwen shook her head.

“Only for like, three more months!” She insisted. “I’m fif-”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re fifteen months older, but that doesn’t mean-”

Aunt May sighed tiredly as the bickering continued, and turned her attention to Miguel, who was standing near the living room door, tinkering with his web-slinger.

“I haven’t had teenagers in my kitchen in quite some time,” May said to break the ice. “As lovely as those two are, I’d forgotten how confrontational they can be at that age.” Miguel chuckled sheepishly in response.

“Yeah, well, hopefully those two grow out of it faster than I did.” He stood up straighter and turned to face May completely. “Thanks for allowing us to stay here, Mrs. Parker. I normally don’t like involving non-Spiders in this kind of thing, but-” May held up her hand, interrupting him.

“Don’t mention it,” She assured him, “Helping a couple Spiders every now and then keeps me on my feet. I need that now…” May trailed off sadly, and gazed past Miguel at the family photos in the living room. The two of them stood there solemnly for a couple moments, before the loud scraping sound of Miles and Gwen pushing their chairs back rang out from the kitchen.

“You are  _ not _ taller than me!” Gwen asserted, as she got out of her seat and marched towards Miles.

“Yes! I! Am!” Miles asserted back as he stood face-to-face to her. Much to his satisfaction, he stood above her by about an inch-and-a-half. “See?! I told you that… I’m… taller…” Miles trailed off as he noticed two things. One - he and Gwen were standing  _ very _ close to each other. Two - he and Gwen were both blushing. A lot.  _ ‘Uuuhhh…’ _ Miles failed to form a coherent thought. Fortunately, Gwen’s brain still seemed to be in working condition.

“Miguel!” Gwen spluttered, as she and Miles frantically backed away from each other. “We should show Miles the goober!” Much to the relief of both teenagers, Miguel was quick on the uptake. 

“Right.” Miguel confirmed. He pulled out a small blue-and-red flash drive and showed it to Aunt May. “Gwen said you have a lab where we can look at this?” May nodded seriously and led everyone down to the spider-lab underneath the shed in her backyard. Even though he had been down there multiple times now, Miles never failed to be impressed by the lab. As they stepped off of the elevator platform, Miles stole a glance at his fellow spider-people. Gwen seemed equally awestruck, while Miguel seemed… bored? 

“Yo Miguel,” Miles asked, “Do you have a place like this?” Miguel strolled towards the lab’s supercomputer without even glancing at any of the tech surrounding him.

“I’m from the year 2099, Miles.” Miguel said, as he searched the console for a spot to plug in his drive. “This stuff is practically Stone Age in my time.” Everyone else in the room felt slightly offended by that comment. Miguel grunted with satisfaction as he found the port he was looking for, and deftly plugged his drive into the computer. 

“If our tech is so “Stone Age”, then why are you using a USB drive?” Miles asked accusingly. Miguel gave him a half-smile over his shoulder, but did not give an answer. He typed a few more commands into the computer, and was rewarded with the appearance of an orange holographic woman on one of the screens.

“Nice of you to check in,” the woman snarked. Miguel ran an exasperated hand down his face and turned to Miles.

“Miles, this is Lyla,” He said. “She’s my AI assistant.” Miles’ eyes widened slightly.

“Damn, that’s pretty cool,” He marveled. He turned to Gwen. “How come we don’t get AI assistants?” Gwen just rolled her eyes.

“Lyla,” Miguel asked, “You mind bringing up the web for me?” Lyla sighed in response and summoned what looked like a spiderweb with a wave of her hand. Miguel typed a few commands, and the web enlarged and zoomed in on the upper right quarter of the web. He hit a button, and several red and blue dots appeared along the web. Miles’ eyes widened, and Gwen grinned at him.

“This,” She said, gesturing towards the screen, “is a map of the multiverse.” Miles looked incredulously from Gwen, to Miguel, to the screen, and back to Miguel.

“Whoa…” was all Miles could manage at first, but Gwen softly laughing at him snapped him out of it. “How do you even map a multiverse?” Miguel shrugged.

“It’s a work in progress,” He said vaguely. “I’m actually not the best person to explain it.” As he spoke, Miguel pulled out a small device and handed it to Miles. Miles held it up and saw that it was the same watch-like device that Gwen and Miguel had shown him earlier, only this one was black and red like Miles’ costume. “These don’t just let us travel between dimensions,” Miguel explained, “They also let us communicate.” He demonstrated by pressing his watch a few times, bringing up a holographic screen that read ‘CALLING: EARTH-14512’. Before Miles could ask any more questions, the screen changed to a video chat of a young anime-looking girl, who appeared to be doing some kind of metal-working. 

“A penny for your thoughts, Peni?” Miguel asked with a grin on his face. Peni gave Miguel an irate look.

“That’s never been funny,” Peni Parker groaned, “And I told you not to call me while I’m in the workshop!” Miguel smirked at her.

“Oh, so you don’t want to say hi to Miles Morales? I thought you two knew each other?” He moved next to Miles, and held his arm out in front of the two of them. Peni’s face lit up when she saw Miles.

“Miles!” Peni exclaimed. She pushed aside whatever she was working on and leaned closer to the screen. “I’m so happy to see you!” Miles grinned back at her.

“Good to see you too, Peni!” Miles said sincerely. Even though it was primarily Peter and Gwen that his thoughts dwelled on, Miles greatly missed all of the spider-people, and Peni was no exception. “Wait, are you working with Miguel and Gwen too?” Miles asked. Peni nodded enthusiastically.

“Yup!” Peni said. “I made a few adjustments to Miguel’s transporter so that it could double as a communicator! And I’ve also been helping him map out the different worlds he visits.” Miles raised his eyebrows as he glanced back at the map on the lair’s computer.

“Yeah, Miguel said you could explain some of that to me?” Miles looked at Peni hopefully, but his stomach sank a bit when he saw Peni pulling out a bunch of diagrams and models.

“It’s pretty straightforward stuff,” Peni said matter-of-factly. “See, the multiverse is made up of a nearly infinite number of possible universes that exist simultaneously in space-time. There are various constants that exist across some or all of these universes, like the laws of physics, cosmic entities like galaxies and supernovas, and even smaller things like individual people and events. As a result, the molecular structure of these dimensions-” 

Miles felt like his brain was melting.  _ ‘Man, this stuff is way harder than freshman level physics.’ _ Even though Peni’s explanation was only about 5 minutes long, Miles felt like she had been droning on for hours by the end of it. 

“-which then allows me to restructure your composition like this! That make sense Miles?” Peni concluded, clearly satisfied with her explanation. Miles just gazed at her helplessly. Mercifully, Miguel came to his rescue.

“Basically,” he said helpfully, “The more similar two universes are, the easier it is to travel between them. And everytime we travel to a new dimension, we plot it on our map. Similar universes are plotted closer together, so we know which ones are easiest to travel between. Does that clarify things?” Miles nodded gratefully. While Miguel’s explanation made sense, Miles still felt a bit overwhelmed by all of this. And there was still something that was bothering him.

“So, what does all of this have to do with random villains showing up in different dimensions?” Miles asked. This time, Gwen was able to provide an explanation.

“Kingpin’s collider was searching throughout the multiverse for his family. From what we can tell, every time it made contact with a universe, it left what we’re calling a “tag” - almost like an interdimensional bookmark. When we destroyed the collider, these tags became unstable, and now they’re randomly opening and closing portals to other dimensions. And, as is the classic Spidey-luck, so far only villains have been unlucky enough to fall through them.” 

“So what do we need to do?” Aunt May spoke up, startling the spider-people, who frankly had forgotten that she was still in the room. “I’m assuming that you all didn’t just drop by for dinner and a sleepover. What’s our game plan?” In response, Lyla pulled up a set of blueprints on the lab computer.

“Kingpin had a set of protocols on his collider that could remove the tags, but he didn’t include it in the shutdown protocols,” She explained. “Chances are, he did that so he could pick up where he’d left off if the collider had to be rebuilt.” Miles felt his stomach drop. 

“Hold up. Are you saying that we have to rebuild the collider and run it to fix this?!” Miles looked imploringly at Miguel and Gwen, hoping that he was wrong. Miguel shuffled awkwardly.

“Well, technically… yes. Or at least… we think so.” Miguel smiled reassuringly, but it didn’t help much.

“We’re… still working out alternatives.” Gwen bashfully ran her hand through the longer side of her hair. Lyla cleared her throat in irritation, getting the attention in the room back on her. 

_ ‘That was weird. Do AI have throats they need to clear? Or is she just sassing us? Why would you program an AI to have sass?’ _ Miles was going to take a while to get used to all of the futuristic tech involved with this.

“As I was saying,” Lyla griped, “Our best bet right now is to retrieve the tag removal protocols so that Peni can figure out a way to execute them without killing everyone.” Peni beamed proudly as her role was mentioned.

“I ran the numbers,” she said, helpfully holding up a calculator, “And I found a few universes where we can probably find the code I need. Since Miles did such a good job destroying the collider, there’s basically zero chance of us finding it in his universe.” Miles felt his cheeks heat up at the praise of his saving the world.

_ ‘At least, I hope that was praise.’ _ Miles wondered briefly.

“So, where are we going?” Miles asked enthusiastically. He was thus far the only Spider-person who hadn’t visited another world, and he was itching to have his chance. Plus, it didn’t hurt that he would be with Gwen either… 

“Like I said, we’re still working things out,” Gwen explained. “We’re gonna spend the evening workout on our game plan, and then we’ll head out tomorrow.” Her response gave Miles some pause.

“Uh, exactly how long is this interdimensional field trip gonna last?” He asked hesitantly. Gwen looked at him in surprise and…  _ ‘Is she disappointed? Does she think I don’t want to go?’ _ Miles panicked and quickly elaborated. “I mean, I totally wanna help you guys. It’s not even a problem if I miss a few classes. My roommate usually covers for me. But if I’m gone for more than a day at a time, my parents and the school are gonna flip!” Miguel waved his hand dismissively.

“Our transporters let us travel through both time and space, just like the collider. So no matter how long we’re gone, we can have you back within a few hours of when you left.” Miles was still unsure, but for the sake of getting to help save the world again, he decided to trust Miguel for now.

_ ‘Besides,’ _ Miles thought, _ ‘Gwen trusts him. That should be good enough for me, right?’ _

Aunt May clapped her hands together as she stepped forward. “Well, sounds like you all know what to do then. I’ll go make up the guest beds for our guest Spiders.” She turned to address Miles directly. “And you ought to be getting home, young man,” May said with a playfully raised eyebrow. “My Peter used to miss dinner a little too often during his early Spider-man days. Don’t do the same thing to your parents, hm?” Miles opened his mouth to protest, but Gwen placed a comforting hand on his forearm.

“Hey, it’ll be fine,” she said. “We can catch up some more tomorrow.” Gwen smiled at him, and Miles briefly allowed himself to acknowledge that the tiny space in her front teeth was  _ really cute _ before snapping back to reality. After bidding a quick farewell to everyone, Miles went back up the elevator and swung home. Upon arriving, he deftly slipped in through his bedroom window, tiptoed around his still unpacked suitcase, and tried to make it look like he had been at home all day. For the most part, he hadn’t had much issue sneaking out to do Spider-man things on weekends, since both of his parents tended to work late. Just before he headed into the kitchen for dinner, Miles turned on the gizmo Miguel had given him and checked the messages.

**“(1) Unread Message From: Spider-woman”**

**-Missed you a lot. See ya tomorrow Spider-man**

Miles struggled to ignore the backflips his stomach was doing, and typed out what he hoped was a neutral-sounding reply.

**-Missed u 2. See ya tomorrow Spider-woman**

_ ‘Yeah, that seems innocent,’ _ Miles sighed deeply, trying to calm his heart rate down, and headed into the living room. He smiled as the smell of his mom’s home cooking reached him. As much as he was looking forward to being Spider-man tomorrow, he didn’t mind being Just Miles for the rest of the day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, yeah this chapter turned out to be way more dialogue heavy than I planned. Hopefully you all enjoyed it anyway! I'm not sure how many chapters this fic is gonna end up being but I do have the general plot outlined. I also can't promise a regular release schedule for chapters, since I'm trying to get back into the school routine, so it may be a while before the next chapter. Stay Tuned!


	3. Back Into the Spider-verse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Space-ship crash lands] I'M BACK BITCHES!!!!
> 
> Damn, it feels good to be back. Sorry for the long hiatus, but real life (and writers block) got in the way for a while. But I promise that this fic is not dead. Not even a little! I can't promise a regular update schedule, but there WILL be future updates, so stay tuned ;)

On most Monday mornings, Miles would either scramble out of his bedroom a mess of unpacked clothes and missing textbooks, or he would sluggishly drag himself across the kitchen as if he had all the time in the world. This day was turning out to be one of the former.

“C’mon, Miles!” Jeff Davis called from the front door. “Personal chauffeur leaving in 5, 4, 3- ” Miles finally pried himself from his mother’s embrace and raced past his dad into the squad car.

“¡Hasta luego, Mama!” Miles called cheerfully from the passenger seat as Jeff pulled out onto the street. 

“¡Adios, mijo!” Rio Morales called back. “See you Friday!” As Jeff’s squad car rolled down the Brooklyn streets, Miles tried unsuccessfully to repress the tornado of thoughts that swirled in his head.

_ ‘I should ask him… NO don’t ask him that’s a horrible idea! Just think about getting to go to a different dimension later! … but then I’m thinking of her again - THEN DON’T!’ _ Miles thunked his forehead dejectedly against the car window, as if he could remove his doubts via mild blunt force trauma. Subtly, or at least, as subtle as a fourteen year old can be, Miles glanced over at his dad. Miles and his dad had certainly bonded a lot the last few months, there was no denying that. Painting Uncle Aaron’s memorial had brought them both a considerable amount of closure, and they had honestly never felt closer. Miles had even convinced Jeff to let him ride shotgun instead of sitting in the back looking like he’d been arrested. But now, the question blocking out Miles’ less intrusive thoughts was making it near impossible for him to even say anything. So the two just sat there quietly for the rest of the drive, the silence only being broken occasionally by Jeff making a disgruntled comment about a new chain restaurant opening, and Miles snarking back a response. Eventually, Jeff rolled to a stop in front of Visions Academy. 

“Last stop, Visions Academy!” Jeff looked expectantly at Miles, who was now uncomfortably drumming his fingers on the dashboard. “Everything good, Miles?” Jeff raised a quizzical eyebrow. Miles glanced between his dad and the school quickly, weighing his options. 

_ ‘Well,’ _ Miles thought grimly, preemptively bracing himself for the coming conversation,  _ ‘here goes nothing… except probably the 2nd most embarrassing moment of my life.’ _ The words left Miles’ mouth faster than even he could process.

“Dad I need to ask you about some girl stuff - I mean guy stuff - I mean, like, I need to ask you stuff about a girl - I mean girls - I mean, there’s a girl, and I-” Miles’ verbal onslaught of embarrassment was mercifully cut off by Jeff clapping a firm but reassuring hand on his shoulder.

“Miles! Remember to breathe, son. Slow down.” The two sat there for a few moments until Miles had adequately calmed down. Only then did Jeff finally allow himself to break out into a huge grin. “So, my boy’s finally got his eye on a girl, huh?” Jeff barked out a laugh as he leaned back in his seat. “Yeah, I guess you’re the right age for that. Of course, back when  _ I _ was your age, hoo boy I - ”

“Dad!” Miles cut Jeff off right there, more for the sake of his own sanity than anything else. Jeff only began laughing even harder, and even had to remove his sunglasses to wipe the tears forming in his eyes. Miles reapplied his forehead to the window, and wondered if he was going to actually get any advice. 

“So,” Jeff finally began, “this girl, does she have a name? Or a codename? Back in my day me and the guys used to give girls codenames so they wouldn’t know we were talking about them. I think your mom’s codename was -”

“Gwen! Her. Name. Is. Gwen. No codenames.” Miles cut Jeff off again, and mentally restrained himself from webbing his own father’s mouth shut.  _ ‘Man, I should have just asked Ganke for advice. At least his jokes would actually be funny… actually, no they wouldn’t. I’m just never asking for advice again.’  _

“Gwen, huh?” Jeff raised an eyebrow the way that he did whenever he was trying to remember something. “I don’t think you’ve mentioned a Gwen before. She go to Visions?” Jeff gave Miles a rather pointed look that made sweat break out across Miles’ forehead.

_ ‘Okay, here goes nothing,’ _ Miles thought as he braced himself, _ ‘He’s got no real reason to be suspicious, so just stick to the story you came up with last night.’ _

“No she doesn’t. I mean, she did, but she doesn’t anymore. She was… uh… an exchange student from… upstate! But she was only here for a couple months, but we met that way and stayed in touch… kinda. But anyway, she’s back in town for a bit so I’m gonna meet up with her later.” Miles didn’t make eye contact with his father until after he had successfully recited the cover story he’d come up with the previous night.

_ ‘I think he bought it!’ _ Miles hoped desperately.  _ ‘If he didn’t, then I’m screwed because I didn’t bother coming up with a second excuse.’ _ Cautiously, Miles glanced at his dad, not quite sure what to expect. Fortunately, he was greeted with a genuine smile on Jeff’s face, rather than the large grin that usually foreshadowed teasing or dumb jokes.

“That’s great, Miles,” Jeff said sincerely, “I’m so, so glad that you’re actually making friends up here. And don’t sweat the girl stuff okay?” Jeff affectionately punched Miles in the shoulder. “You’re a good kid. Just be yourself, and she’ll like you for who you are.” Miles smiled sheepishly, and finally began getting out of the car.

“Thanks, Dad.” Miles said. “I hope you’re right.” The two exchanged “I love you”s, which Miles had become much less shy about, and as Jeff’s police cruiser pulled away from Visions Academy, Miles was once again left alone with his feelings.

 

The school day couldn’t have taken any longer to go by for Miles. Increasingly, he found himself unable to focus on the lectures, and his attention was constantly drawn towards anything displaying the time. 

_ ‘Only, 5 more hours… only 4 more hours… that’s just one more hour 4 times, I can do this… THAT DOESN’T EVEN MAKE SENSE! YES IT DOES!’ _ Miles’ thoughts continued to spiral like that until classes finally ended, and he was finally able to relay everything that was going on to Ganke. All things considered, he took the onslaught of information surprisingly well.

“Okay… okay… holy shit dude,” Ganke said incredulously, as he tried to simultaneously process the new knowledge that there were multiple dimensions, that each dimension seemed to have it’s own equivalent of Spider-man, that Miles was going to be visiting said dimensions for an undisclosed amount of time, and that Miles happened to have a bit of a crush on one of these dimension’s Spider-people. “So… that all sounds insanely awesome, but I’m still not sure what you need from me.” Miles spun around and began walking backwards as he repeated himself to Ganke.

“The future Spider-man guy said that I should technically get dropped off in this dimension soon enough that it doesn’t seem like I was gone, but he doesn’t know for sure,” Miles explained. “So, I-” Miles paused to weave around a few students while continuing to face Ganke. “So, I need you to cover for me in case I don’t get back by the end of tomorrow. If any teachers ask, tell them I went home for the weekend.” Miles paused again to deftly scale the stairs, again while continuing to face Ganke. “And if my parents ask, tell them we’re busy with a group project so I’m somewhere else busy working. That all make sense?” Ganke blinked a few times before nodding that he understood everything.

“Uh, yeah, just two questions,” Ganke asked slowly. “First up: How have you been walking backwards for the last 15 minutes without looking?”

“Spider-sense.” Miles replied nonchalantly, turning the corner onto their floor.

“....Huh.” Ganke sounded a little bit let down by the simplicity of that answer. “Okay, second question. This Spider-Gwen girl you like so much, what’s she look like?” Miles opened his mouth to answer, but he opened the door at the same time, and was greeted by the sight of Gwen -in full costume, sans mask, no less- sitting right at Ganke’s desk in their dorm room.

“Uh…” Miles’ brain scrambled to remember how to function properly. “She… looks like that.” Gwen raised an eyebrow at Miles, before turning to Ganke.

“So, how much am I allowed to say in front of him?” Gwen asked. It actually took Miles a few seconds to realize that the question was directed at him.

“Oh! Ganke? Oh yeah, he already knows everything, so, uh, no secrets here!” Miles tried to sound nonplussed while he answered.

_ ‘It’s not working, I sound extremely plussed. Plussed to the max right now. For real.’ _ Fortunately, if Gwen noticed, she didn’t give it away.

“Well, that makes this easier,” Gwen said, turning her eyes back to Miles. “Miguel is gonna meet up with us a few blocks from Times Square. Something about stronger dimensional bonds that I didn’t quite catch. It’s about a 20 minute web-swing from here.” Gwen smirked a little bit as she tacked on, “Maybe an hour if I’m chaperoning your clumsy ass there.” Miles decided to ignore the enthusiastic “OOOOOHHHHH” from Ganke for the time being.

“Oh, so that’s how it’s gonna be, huh Spider-Girl?” Miles had learned the previous day that Gwen abhorred being called Spider-Girl, and he emphasized it just enough to get a rise out of Gwen.

“That’s exactly how it’s gonna be, Spider-Boy,” Gwen retorted. She walked over to the open window and gestured outside. “Now get your mask on so we can get a move on.” Without waiting for a response, Gwen leapt out of the window, and out of sight. Miles released the breath he didn’t know he was holding, and turned to Ganke, whose jaw was hanging like it was dislocated.

“She’s pretty great.” Ganke managed weakly. “I totally get why you’re into her.” Miles blushed furiously.

“I should… you know,” Miles offered lamely as he fished his mask out of his backpack and moved towards the window. “Gotta go do Spider-man things.” Ganke nodded numbly.

“Yeah,” Ganke grinned, “Go get ‘em dude.” Miles stuck one leg out of the window, turned to quickly salute his roommate, and leapt out, quickly swinging up to where Gwen was waiting for him.

“Your roommate seems nice,” Gwen said as she put her own mask on. Miles raised an eyebrow at her.

“He barely said a word to you.” Miles pointed out. Gwen’s eye lenses narrowed smugly. 

“And just for that, he’s already more fun to be around than you.” Gwen’s laughter at Miles’ faux outrage faded out as she released herself from the side of the building and swung out into the city, followed closely by Miles himself.

 

Despite Gwen’s previous assertion that they were 20 minutes away from Miguel’s location, the friendly competition that developed between the two resulted in their travel time being cut down to about 12 minutes. Miles touched down on the rooftop about 30 seconds before Gwen did.

“Hah!” Miles exclaimed, half boasting and half gasping for air after exerting himself so much. “I… I told you I’d gotten better!” Gwen rolled her eyes - a gesture somehow still obvious with her mask on - as she caught her breath.

“I was in the lead for most of that!” Gwen argued back, but Miles was having none of it.

“You got lost!” Miles said incredulously. “How do you get lost in New York?!” Gwen’s body language indicated some measure of annoyance, though she was clearly enjoying the trash talk as much as Miles was.

“Okay, first off, I didn’t get lost. I just made a wrong turn, and then immediately corrected myself,” Gwen said, holding back laughter at the ridiculousness of the conversation. “Second, how is it my fault that Times Square in my universe is actually 3 blocks over from where it is in this universe? You assholes put Times Square in the wrong place!” The moment those words left Gwen’s mouth, the dam holding back their laughter broke. Miles and Gwen were practically keeled over, so much so that they didn’t even notice Miguel’s arrival for a few more minutes.

“Ah… Hey… Miguel,” Gwen wheezed, trying to greet the other Spider-man. “What took you so long?” Miguel raised an eyebrow under his mask.

“I got sick of waiting for you guys so I decided to swing around the area for a bit. Sightsee a little,” Miguel said nonchalantly. However, his mask and tone did nothing to disguise the levity in his voice, and he struggled to hold it back even more as he delivered his killing blow. “Speaking of which,” Miguel snickered, “Did you guys notice that Times Square is actually a couple blocks over from where it usually is?” If Miles and Gwen hadn’t been able to breathe from laughing before, then all three spider-people were practically asphyxiating at this point. Eventually, the laughter died down enough that the group was able to have a proper conversation about the coming mission.

“Okay then,” Miguel began, bringing up a hologram of the multiverse map, “here’s our game plan. Peni and I have run some simulations, and we think that this dimension is the one with the most similarities to Miles’.” Miguel tapped and zoomed in on a node on the map, revealing a holographic Earth labeled “E-616”. Swiping that to the side, Miguel then brought up a render of Kingpin’s collider, with several parts of it labeled and highlighted. “This is everything we know about Kingpin’s collider. Technically, we could rebuild the entire thing based off of what we have here, but like we said yesterday, we need those tag removal protocols first.” Miles nodded along, easily keeping up with the explanation.

“Right,” Miles said, “And how do we know that we can get those protocols on Earth 616?” Before Miguel could respond, Lyla popped up on the hologram.

“With the number of similarities between these two earths, it seems likely that the 616 Kingpin, or someone like him, is building a similar collider,” Lyla explained drolly. “Which means that they will have tag protocols similar to Kingpins’. Even if they’re a little different, it’s better than nothing.” Her explanation concluded, Lyla looked down her glasses at Miles, who seemed satisfied with the answer. At that, Gwen jumped in with her part of the mission prep.

“The plan is to jump to this dimension, find whatever evil billionaire is building a collider, break into their hideout, hack them and steal their protocols, and get out before shit hits the fan. Sound good?” She looked back and forth between Miles and Miguel, who seemed to be on the same page.

“Alright, enough planning!” Miles exclaimed excitedly. “Let’s do this thing! … uh, how do we go to another dimension?” Gwen face-palmed while Miguel chuckled and helpfully showed Miles which buttons he needed to press on his gizmo.

“Alright Spiders, let’s roll out,” Miguel said as he punched the coordinates into his gizmo. Right on cue, a large multi-colored portal opened up on the roof. It eerily reminded Miles of the inside of Kingpin’s collider. Without another word, Miguel took a running start and leapt through the portal. Gwen playfully punched Miles in the shoulder and mader her way to the portal.

“See you on the other side, Spider-man,” Gwen quipped, and just like that, she was through the portal as well. Miles steeled himself, took a running start, and dove head first into another dimension.

 

Once Miles’ eyesight recovered from all of the flashing lights in the portal, he was able to process a few things. First, he was still on a rooftop in New York City, only it was sometime in the morning instead of late afternoon. Second, everything looked different. The advertisements, the cars, right down to the way that the light seemed to hit everything looked different from his universe. 

_ ‘Is this how Gwen and the others felt when they were stuck in my dimension?’ _ Miles wondered.  _ ‘This shit is crazy.’ _ As Miles looked around, he finally noticed the third, and most important thing about this version of NYC. On the other end of the rooftop, Gwen and Miguel were standing face-to-face with this dimension’s Spider-man. Miles ran over, curiosity overtaking him, but he stopped dead in his tracks when Earth-616’s Spider-man removed his own mask in shock, causing Gwen and Miles to do the same.

“Miles? Gwen?!” Peter B. Parker exclaimed incredulously, “What in the hell are you guys doing here?!”


End file.
